The Starry Maiden

My Life... I Think

It's been a year since Astraeus and Eos found me on the beach near their home. But I feel no closer to remembering anything than the moment after I woke up from experiencing that excruciating pain... They have helped me recover from all the wounds I had that I couldn't remember getting, like the nasty gash on the back of my head.

For this year I've mostly rested. Eos teaches me about the world a few times a week but the only things that feel familiar sometimes are some of the names I hear. Names of others like Astraeus and Eos, the Isu. Names like Jupiter, Minerva, and Poseidon... There are many others who are powerful and many of their names bring a feeling of disbelief. Like somewhere, deep inside of me, I don't believe there are really beings with those names.

Eos says that Isu were responsible for the creation of humans, but that the humans have begun to change in ways they did not foresee. Like with art, music, and other cultural developments. The Isu seem to have some spectacular abilities too. And they create some of the most amazing things.

Astraeus and Eos have many children and most of them are fairly pleasant. And they are all completely different from each other... Although, in some of their interactions something feels nostalgic, like I know how it is to have siblings... Could it be that I have brothers or sisters somewhere? Are they missing me?

For now... I guess I'll keep writing in this diary. With words my heart, mind, and hands know... Without remembering where or when I learnt them. Eos suggested it to keep track of things that might help me remember, the most I have are the memories I have in my hands of writing words unlike anything I've learnt from Eos...

Oh, I should put a year at least on this right? It is 2016 Isu Era.

It's been fifteen years now. I guess I didn't do a very good job of writing in this book...

Well... I have watched the humans of Astraeus and Eos' household grow and change. The newborns have grown into adolescents and the adults are beginning to show grey hairs on their heads. The parents of the adults have wilted into weary men and women who help as they can but seem to be knocking on death's door.

And yet... Despite my appearance being alike to theirs... I have not change at all. Astraeus and Eos have been keeping an eye on me. They haven't said anything, but I know they've noticed it too. I have also noticed that I seem to have gotten hardier than the humans. I don't get hurt as easily, and I seem to be able to grasp knowledge they cannot. They are beginning to revere me like how they do the Isu... I'm not sure I like it; I try to stop them whenever I can. And according to Eos and some of the female servants... I do not seem to have any kind of reproductive cycle; another thing that has set me apart from them.

Maybe I'm not a human after all?

I am certainly not an Isu, I lack in height and the glowing marks they all bear...

But if I'm not human and I'm not Isu, then what am I?

It seems that I'm really just not cut out for diary keeping. Especially seeing as my last entry was around fifty years ago; it is now 2085 Isu Era. I wonder if that is how I always was, or if whatever happened changed me... Maybe before all this, I kept the best journals ever, with jaw-dropping detail for whoever happened to be snooping.

I still use the letters my hands know in my writing, although I have now become adept at writing the Isu language and in the use of their system consoles. I find myself using turns of phrase that don't make sense in a literal fashion, but somehow I know the meaning they hold.

Well... A lot has changed since that last entry. And I mean a lot.

First, about five years after that entry, Astraeus and Eos offered me to join their family. I had been ready to say yes immediately, but they kept talking and telling me all the things they would be able to offer me if were I actually a part of their family. When they finished talking, we worked it all out. All in all it took about ten years to make it completely official. Then it was all those babies who had been born when I arrived who were well into their own families. Something about all that felt wrong then... But now, it doesn't bother me as much as it used to... Although, I'm not sure I can pinpoint when it stopped bothering me. Strange because Eos says my memory is sharper than that of humans.